Category: Food

This may not be a great discovery, but it worked for me. I haven’t had good results with making my own pizza on a pre-made pizza shell. The topping usually doesn’t taste right. I don’t like frozen pizza because they use a lot some synthetic flavourings including a garlic oil on the crust, but I keep a few in the freezer for those days when I am too tired to cook anything else.
Last week I tried to make a pizza from scratch using a frozen shell, plain canned tomato sauce, and tuna, black olives, capers and grated parmesan cheese. I spread the sauce on the pizza shell and then sprinkled marjoram, oregan, and dried powdered garlic on the sauce. Then I put the flaked tuna on. Then I took a fork and stirred the topping before adding the other ingredients. It turned out much better than my past efforts. I think in my past efforts, I just sprinkled the herbs onto the sauce, and they dried out. Stirring the herbs into the sauce makes a difference. I am not sure, but other times I have used Italian seasoning which is a blend including marjoram, basil, thyme, savory, sage, oregano and other spices. I think basil tends to be overdone in many factory sauces and it may be overdone, at least for my tastes, in Italian seasoning. This pizza came out very nicely.

Pasta and sauce is a good meal. There are many pre-mixed pasta sauces for sale, packaged in jars, cans and pouches – and the sauces aren’t often either bland or overseasoned. They tend to be sweet and heavy on basil and sweet-smelling herbs.

I found a recipe in the Winnipeg Folk Festival Cook book that pointed the way to making a good homemade sauce. It takes a few minutes chopping vegetables and cooking the raw ingredients – but it’s easy and worthwhile

I followed – and played with – Pierre Guerin’s recipe for clam sauce.
It calls for a can of baby clams. I used the 284 ml/10 oz size. It calls for a can of tomato sauce. I used a 398 ml (14 oz) can and a 213 ml (7.5 oz). I think a 14 oz can would be ok, but I was able to simmer this for a while to get a thick sauce. It calls for a medium onion and 2 cloves of garlic. A large onion doesn’t hurt, and 2 cloves of garlic is too bland. Use 4-6. The onions and garlic should be chopped fine, and sautéed in light oil in a large skillet. When the onions are soft, add the clams. Drain the clams first, rinsing them doesn’t hurt. Cook for a few more minutes. Add the tomato sauce. At this point I added a cup of red wine. The recipe called for unstated amounts of oregano, black pepper and parsley. One teaspoon of oregano is good. Parsley is not meant to be eaten, but it seems to be a standard ingredient. I skipped it. I thought a touch of basil wouldn’t hurt – a quarter teaspoon, and a quarter teaspoon of tarragon. I went heavy on the pepper. I use peppercorns in a grater, and I was liberal with both black and mixed peppercorns, perhaps half a teaspoon each – which may be a little intense. Also, a tablespoon or two of grated parmesan. Guerin also suggested a little sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatos. I thought the basil, tarragon and wine did fine. If I hadn’t used the wine, it would have been an idea.

Simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally. Relax. Have a beer. Heat the water for pasta slowly. Clam sauce is good on linguine noodles. Clam sauce is supposed to be eaten fresh, not refrigerated for too long.

Guerin’s notes suggested the recipe works as a Bolognese sauce with 300-500 grams of lean ground beef instead of clams. He suggested adding the beef to the onions as in the clam recipe above. A different idea – if you don’t mind an extra pan to wash – is to brown the beef in a separate skillet, and remove it with a slotted spoon and add it to the onions and garlic. That leaves some fat behind. However, it also makes for a less robust dish. Bolognese is a tomato and meat sauce, good on spaghetti. Choices, choices.

Claire had been making a similiar dish with spicy Italian sausage – a fresh sausage we get at our local supermarket. She starts with onions and garlic and adds sausage chunks. She uses a can of diced tomatos and a small can of tomato sauce. I think she uses some oregano, but she lets the sausage supply the other spices.

I haven’t tried to cost out the ingredients for these sauces against packaged sauces. It’s not expensive – onions, garlic, tomato sauce, and clams/ground beef/sausage/etc. If you have a good chef’s knife and washable cutting board, it’s pretty easy. It cooks in short stages, and there is time to to do other chores or read as it simmers. it’s hard to go wrong, and you can get something you really like instead of someone else’s idea of Italian.
The Folk Festival cookbook is fun. There are a few recipes from the cooks who prepare the meals for the volunteers just for information, like borscht for 1,500. There some interesting regional dishes and some delightful eccentricities. Queen Ida’s Poulet Gumbo (Queen Ida is a Zydeco musician from Louisiana). Stan Roger’s Hot mustard (start with 3 jars of Keens’ and add Tabasco, cayenne, garlic and Madras curry.) Spotted Dick with Hard Sauce? Visions of Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey. The less of two weevils.

On Saturday I made a low calorie vegetarian lasagna, and it turned out very well – tasty and filling. I took the recipe from the Canadian Living 2005 Crockpot Cooking special issue, and I adapted it.

It has to be made in a larger oval crock. It uses 12 no-cook or oven-ready noodles; the noodles need to be snapped at the ends to fit in the pot. After making the sauces, it cooks in about 3 hours. Give yourself an hour and half to chop and process vegetables, grate cheeses, and to cook or mix the 2 sauces. It makes 8 servings. The recipe notes say it would be about 370 calories per serving. I added some cheese so lets say 400 grams per serving. It uses whole containers of ingredients which is convenient. No half cans of stuff sitting around, nothing wasted. There is a cold cheese sauce, a hot tomato mushroom sauce, and a topping.

The cold cheese sauce is made by mixing these ingredients in a bowl:

• 1 500 gram tub of low fat cottage cheese (The recipe suggested 2% but 1% should work. However 1% isn’t that much lighter than 2%).
• 1/4 cup (50-60 ml) grated parmesan cheese.
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup (125 t0 250 ml) grated mozzarella cheese.
• 1 egg, beaten.
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (grated.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (or more to taste).
• (The recipe also says 1/4 teaspoon salt but I skipped the salt as I always do).
• 1 package (10 oz or 300 grams) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained.

The hot tomato mushroom sauce is made with a large onion or a couple of medium onions, 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, a carrot, 4 cups of sliced mushrooms, some dried spices, and one 700 ml jar of any basic off-the-shelf pasta sauce. The onion should be chopped. The carrot should be finely diced. The garlic should be minced. The mushrooms should be washed and sliced. The next step involves a saucepan big enough to hold the vegetables and the sauce. Heat some vegetable oil in the saucepan and sauté the onion, garlic, carrots and mushrooms with dried spices over medium heat until the onions mushrooms cook down. They give up their water at first, and the water steams off. This should take 8-10 minutes.

The main spice is 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning. (Italian seasoning is a mixture of Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary, Savory, Sage, Oregano, and Basil. I don’t know the proportions. If I didn’t have Italian seasoning on the shelf I would use 1/2 tsp Marjoram, 1/2 tsp Thyme, and 1/4 tsp each of Rosemary, Savory, Sage, Oregano, and Basil). The other spices are 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, ground, and a pinch of hot pepper flakes. The recipe said a pinch but I used a healthy pinch. more like a quarter teaspoon.

When the vegetables have cooked down, add the pasta sauce and 1 and 1/2 cups (375 ml) of water. Stir to mix, then heat until the mixture boils.
Fill the crockpot in layers, from the bottom up:

• One cup of tomato sauce – fill the bottom of the pot.
• Three noodles.
• A layer of spinach-cheese mix – half of the bowl.
• Three noodles.
• A layer of tomato sauce – half of what’s left in the pan.
• Three noodles.
• A layer of spinach-cheese – the rest of the bowl.
• One last layer of 3 noodles.
• The rest of the tomato sauce on top.

Then sprinkle a cup or a cup and a half of grated mozzarella (the printed recipe also suggests provolone) cheese on top, cover, and cook for three hours on low. The cheese will melt but it won’t bake. You can tell it’s done if you can poke a knife or fork down into the noodles and they are nicely soft.

A little positive news. My weight has been going up over the winter. I have been going through a reality check around diet and exercise over the last several weeks. I have made some changes, and I am starting to notice the results.

Continue reading “Weight Check”

After Steve’s comments on my last entry (Portion Advice) about Weightwatcher points, I looked at the labels on a few 355 ml (12 oz) beverage cans. The Safeway house brand root beer and regular cola have 162 and 161 calories per can, respectively. Diet Coke has 2 calories per can. Schweppe’s diet ginger ale, 0 calories. Schweppes Tonic Water – 130 calories. Canada Dry Tonic – not marked. Presidents Choice Brew (0.5 percent beer) is 65 calories per can. I have some regular beer in the house, but beer labels don’t have nutritional data. I dug up some information.

Continue reading “Canned Drinks”

Yesterday I wrote about portion sizes, complaining that good nutritional information tends to be published alongside luxuriously unhealthy recipes and other consumption-oriented material. On Wednesday the Free Press basically turns its Life and Entertaiment section into a Food section, with articles about cooking, recipes and a wine column. Today, I found an article out of the Canadian Press covering the start of Nutrition Month – March is Nutrition month for the Dieticians of Canada. This year they are emphasizing portion size.

Continue reading “Portions Advice”

This won’t be a stunning insight for many people. I knew it in an abstract way, but I haven’t made a serious effort to live with it. If I, as an adult, am gaining weight in spite of regular exercise, I am eating too much. I eat too much because I eat what I buy or cook, and I am buying and serving large portions.

Continue reading “Portions”

The first recipe I tried in the 2005 Canadian Living Slow Cooker cooking special was a success. I adapted it a bit, mainly in spicing and preparation. It makes about 6 good servings. It’s a simple beef vegetable stew.

Continue reading “February Beef Stew”

Canadian Living Magazine just had a special issue of slow cooker recipes. Canadian Living is a regular monthly publication with recipes, and articles on cooking, decorating and the domestic arts. I usually ignore the regular issues, although I guess it would be ok for a middle-aged metrosexual to browse. Canadian Living also publishes several cookbook specials every year. The cover on this one advertised that it had 135 slow cooker recipes, and tips and tricks, and when I flipped through it, there were several interesting recipes.

Continue reading “Magazine Recipes”

This was an experiment. I called it Krakatau because I had been reading Simon Winchester’s book about the eruption and explosion of Krakatoa a few days before I made this. I used the Dutch spelling. In spite of volcanic connotations, it is mildly spiced. I used red kidney beans, corn, beef chuck. I used dried beans which calls for extra preparation. I did not use a prepared chili powder. This recipe filled the pot, and will make enough for 8-10 people.

The first step is the beans. You can use one 28 oz (796 ml.) can of red kidney beans and one smaller can, rinsed and drained (two large cans would be too much).

The right amount of dried beans would be about one and half cups of dried beans.I have found that recipes that call for using dried beans in chilies in a crockpot don’t generally work. Even if you soak the beans first, the recipe will not work. Recipes that call for long cooking times may work, but with garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and some larger beans, especially kidney beans, even a long soaking isn’t enough. The beans should be partially cooked before the other ingredients go in. That why most crockpot chili recipes use canned beans.

I soaked the beans for about 12 hours. I changed the water a couple of times. I cooked the beans, covered in water, in the slow cooker for about 2 hours on high, which wasn’t enough. Next time I will try about 4-6 hours. Cooking dried beans isn’t hard, and the process is less convenient that using canned beans. I thought this would work if I got up early and cooked the beans while I had coffee and read for a few hours. I think it would have worked if I had cooked the beans longer before I moved on to next steps.

I removed the beans with a slotted spoon and emptied the fluid from the bottom of the crockpot. I rinsed the beans and put them back into the pot, still hot. I did not rinse the crockpot because it was hot and I did not want to risk cracking it – which is what will happen if you rinse a hot clay dish or pour a cool or lukewarm liquid into a hot crock. I let the liner cool off for a while before putting the beans back.

There is a meat and vegetable preparation stage. You can do this while the beans are cooking. I used a chuck steak, about 600 grams (one and a half pounds) but into fine pieces, trimming fat and sinew as I went. I used a red bell pepper and half a green bell pepper, seeded, rinsed, cut into small pieces. I used one onion, chopped fine, and one celery rib cut and chopped. I would add another onion. I used two jalapeno peppers, seeded, rinsed and diced fine – almost minced. I used about 5 cloves of garlic, minced.

Watch out for the jalapenos. Mincing them gets juicy and you might want to wear disposable rubber gloves. Pepper oil can get into the grain of your skin and doesn’t wash off that well.

When the beans have been pre-cooked and the meat and veggies are ready, it all goes together with tomatoes, corn and spices. Because of my concern about adding cool things, I took a extra care at this step. I heated the contents of a large (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes in the microwave and stirred it into the beans. I added 2 cups of kernel corn. I used canned corn, which tends to come in 11 or 12 oz cans. You can use both cans, or you can use one can, or open the second can to get two cups and use the extra for something else (I like to stir it into salsa). Frozen corn would work instead, but heat it before adding it if the pot is already hot. I added the meat and fresh veggies after the tomatoes and corn. I just put them on top, and added the spices.

Spices – you could use from a teaspoon to tablespoon of commercial chili powder and add oregano, cumin, sage and cayenne to taste. A commercial chili powder is based on paprika, some ground chilis, and a little cumin and oregano. Many recipes call for extra spice. I didn’t have any chili powder and I improvised: one teaspoon of paprika, half teaspoon ground sage, half teaspoon ground cumin, half teaspoon dried oregano, quarter teaspoon cayenne. I had some dried chili peppers and I ground up a couple in a mortar and threw that in too. The result is custom chili powder. This was a mild mix.

I like to put in a shot of tequilla. I stirred it a lot to distribute the spices. This starts as sticky, dry mixture but gains fluid as the beans and vegetables cook. It should cook for about 8 hours to cook the meat. I needed to cook it longer to deal with the beans, but the answer for that is canned beans or longer preparation of dried beans.